Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san: Friendly Vampires turned Sapphic

Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san is a 2018 anime from Gokumi and Axsiz based off of a manga by Amatou. I have seen some Gokumi anime before. The dreadful Crime Edge was one of theirs. So were the enjoyable A-Channel & Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru. So, hopefully this will be more like those two and less like Crime Edge.

Story:

Our narrative opens simply enough. Some girls are discussing some rumours of a “Doll Mansion” where a living doll rises and wanders around at night. Amano Akari decides to investigate since she loves dolls so dearly only to discover the truth. The doll is actually Sophie Twilight, an immortal vampire. Akari becomes friends with Sophie and decides to move into her house, with her parents’ permission, of course.

The whole series is based off of taking these ageless, blood drinking creatures of the night and putting a softer, comedic spin on them. There are elements of vampirism, like only being able to enter somewhere they’re invited, that get explained in comedic ways. It actually works really well since a lot of the explanations for “traditional vampire behaviour” make a lot of sense but they’re also abnormal enough for a vampire story that they’re unexpected. The jokes have very strong build ups with punchlines that just flow very nicely.

The series also features a lot of jokes based around the ages of the vampire girls and the ways they’re kind of out of place. It’s a series that knows how to put a spin on the slice of life genre and takes full advantage of its concept. It also avoids a lot of the potentially creepy aspects of having a shoujo ai involving vampires and high school girls by focusing on the human girls having crushes and the vampire girls finding them endearing rather than going into a more straightforward romance. The worst it gets is the secondary vampire girl, Elly, being a bit flirtatious.

Characters:

The cast in this has a lot of strong comedic quirks, they’re endearing and they have strong dynamics. Not super complex but they don’t really need to be. It’s a slice of life comedy. They need to be funny and enjoyable, not necessarily deep.

The only issue I have with the characters is that there are a lot of side characters, like the parents or Hinata’s brother, who don’t really contribute much. They’re pretty much used in one scene and that’s it.

Art:

The artwork looks pretty good. It’s a very cutesy aesthetic which meshes strongly with the writing. It’s also one of those anime where the comedic moments are frequently punctuated with a change in art style which works pretty well but you might find a little over-used. It also has some strong visual gags and it manages to avoid getting super fan-servicey.

Sound:

The performances in this are solid. Tomita Miyu, Sasahara Yuu, Lynn, Waki Azumi and the rest of the cast all do well. They have strong comedic delivery and they express the dynamics very well. Fujisawa Yoshiaki’s soundtrack is perfect for the series.

Ho-yay:

This is one of those series where all the main girls seem to have some form of romantic tension with each other. Akari flirts with both Sophie and Elly. Elly flirts with basically every single woman she encounters but seems to harbour special feelings for Sophie. Hinata has a crush on Akari but also seems susceptible to Elly’s advances. Sophie doesn’t seem super interested in pursuing any romance but she also comes across as someone who could easily be romanced by one of the other girls if they demonstrate enough patience and don’t try to force it. The side characters, Yuu and Sakuya, seem to be girlfriends or one careless hand brush away from becoming girlfriends.

Areas of Improvement:

1. This is another series where I feel it would be improved by the girls not being in High school. If they were in University, the vampires being so much older wouldn’t be an issue and there could be more heavily romantic elements. It would also make more sense with writing points like Akari moving in with Sophie.
2. We could use more scenes with the families. There’s plenty of comedic potential there that’s just not taken advantage of.
3. The art style could be more consistent with the visual shifts being used more sparingly. That would give them a greater impact.

Final Thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoyed this series. The comedy is excellent. The characters are a lot of fun. The cutesy artwork and writing work well. While I did have some relatively minor complaints, I still pretty much loved Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san from the first episode until the last. If you’re a fan of slice of life comedies and you’d be interested in seeing one with supernatural elements, I would highly recommend it. For myself, I’m giving it a 9/10.